Sensex ends over 60 points lower ahead of Budget, Nifty holds 11K

3:30 Market at Close: After trading through the session on a weak note, the market staged a mild recovery in the final hour, as indices trimmed some of their losses.

The Sensex was down 68.71 points or 0.19% at 35965.02, while the Nifty was down 22.00 points or 0.20% at 11027.70. The market breadth was negative as 1084 shares have advanced, 1729 shares declined, and 236 shares are unchanged.

Kotak Mahindra Bank, Reliance, and Bharti Infratel gained the most on both indices, while Tata Steel and Dr Reddy's Laboratories were the top losers.

3:25 pm Hiring news: South Korean tech giant Samsung today said it would be hiring 1000 engineers from top institutes for its three research and development (R&D) facilities in India.

It would be hiring the talent from IITs, NITs, Delhi College of Engineering, BITS Pilani, Manipal Institute of Technology and IIITs among others. "Samsung is extremely bullish on R&D in India. We have been here for over 22 years. The three R&D centres in India work on several cutting edge technologies," Samsung global senior vice-president and MD Samsung R&D Institute India Bengaluru Dipesh Shah said.

3:15 pm Order win: Tata Motors, India's largest commercial vehicle maker, has bagged an order for supply of 3,000 trucks worth Rs 600 crore from logistics company Rivigo.

"The order is for 3 axel truck which we bagged recently," said Girish Wagh, head, commercial vehicle business unit, Tata Motors, in an interaction with Moneycontrol.

The announcement comes a week after rival Ashok Leyland said it had bagged an order for supplying 1,200 trucks for Rs 350 crore to one of the biggest transport and logistics companies in the country -- VRL. VRL is one of the oldest patrons of Ashok Leyland trucks and buses.

3:00 pm NBCC to consider stock split: The meeting of board of directors of NBCC would be held on February 13, for approval of the standalone and consolidated un-audited financial results of the company for the quarter & nine month ended December 31, 2017.

The board also consider splitting of equity shares of Rs 2 each into 2 equity shares of face value Re 1 each and declaration of interim dividend for the FY 2017-18, if any.

2:50 pm Market Update: Benchmark indices recovered some of its losses with the help of banking stock.

The Sensex was down 69.10 points at 35964.63, and the Nifty was down 21.70 points at 11028. About 913 shares have advanced, 1766 shares declined, and 229 shares are unchanged.

1:45 pm Buzzing Stock: Shares of Foods and Inns gained 20 percent intraday Wednesday as company to consider stock split at board meeting.

A meeting of the board of directors of the company is scheduled on February 08, to consider and to take on record the un-audited financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2017.

The board will also consider the proposal of sub-division of equity shares of the company.

1:25 pm Results: Multiplex chain firm, PVR, reported 21 percent increase in the December quarter net profit at Rs 29 crore against Rs 24 crore reported during the same quarter last year.

The consolidated revenue grew 5 percent at Rs 557.2 crore against Rs 531 crore.

At the operating level, the EBITDA grew 26 percent at Rs 100.3 crore against Rs 80 crore year on year.

1:18 pm Market Check: The market has extended losses.

The Sensex is down 150.95 points or 0.42% at 35882.78, and the Nifty down 46.90 points or 0.42% at 11002.80. About 925 shares have advanced, 1654 shares declined, and 221 shares are unchanged.

Kotak Mahindra Bank, RIL, Hindalco and Tech Mahindra gained the most, while DRL and Tata Steel lost the most.

12:55 pm FPI registrations: As many as 1,235 fresh foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were registered with SEBI in April-December of the current fiscal, mainly due to their continued interest in the Indian capital markets, latest data from the regulator showed.

In comparison, close to 3,500 new FPIs registered with SEBI in the entire 2016-2017 fiscal.

The number of FPIs with the markets regulator climbed to 9,042 at the end of December from 7,807 at March-end, resulting in an addition of 1,235, according to SEBI data.

12:35 pm Management Speak: JHS Svendgaard Laboratories posted a strong set of Q3 numbers. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Nikhil Nanda, MD of the company discussed the results and his outlook for the company.

The company makes a range of oral and dental products.

The order book for most of our customers are looking good, he said.

In Q4 we will have the launches of our own brand with all the characters like Chhota Bheem, Pokemon, that we have leased out recently from the various brand owners, he added.

12:15 pm Order win: Highway developer Dilip Buildcon (DBL) today said it has bagged a road project worth Rs 565.02 crore from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in Maharashtra.

"The company has been declared L-1 bidder for a new engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) project valued at Rs 565.02 crore by the NHAI in Maharashtra," Dilip Buildcon said in a BSE filing.

The project is for four/six laning of Karodi to Telwadi road section of NH211 (new NH52) in Maharashtra, the company added.

11:55 am Product approval: Pharmaceutical company Strides Shasun today said its wholly-owned subsidiary has received approval from the US health regulator for Piroxicam capsules and anti-fungal cream Nystatin and Triamcinolone Acetonide ointment.

In a BSE filing the company said, Strides Pharma Global Pte. Limited has received approval for Piroxicam capsules 10mg and 20mg from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA).

Piroxicam is indicated for the symptomatic relief of rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis or ankylosing spondylitis.

11:35 am Management Outlook: Intellect Design Arena posted a poor set of earnings in Q3 as margins took a hit while revenue growth remained flattish. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Arun Jain, Chairman and Managing Director of the company spoke about the results and his outlook for the company.

We have grown 25 percent year-on-year crossing Rs 1,000 crore mark, he said.

We have demonstrated over 20 percent growth in the last four quarters, he added.

The company has a healthy pipeline, said Jain.

11:20 am Deal Street: Tea producers Dhunseri Group and MK Shah Exports are in talks with Tata Global Beverage Ltd to buy its stake in Amalgamated Plantations (APPL), according to a Mint report citing three sources.

Tata Global is valuing 25 estates at about Rs 1,300 crore, one of the sources told Mint.

APPL, formed after Tata Tea divested its plantation business, is India's second largest tea producer and supplier. It has tea plantations in West Bengal and Assam.

11:05 am Market Check: Selling pressure is back on the market, with the Sensex falling over 100 points, while the Nifty is testing 11,000.

The Sensex is down 122.48 points or 0.34% at 35911.25, and the Nifty down 31.00 points or 0.28% at 11018.70. The market breadth is negative as 1176 shares have advanced, 1183 shares declined, while 219 shares are unchanged.

Kotak Mahindra Bank, BHEL, and Hindalco have gained the most on both indices, while Dr Reddy's Labs, Coal India, and Lupin are the top losers.

10:55 am Budget Expectations: The final countdown to the Budget 2018 has begun. Ahead of key elections, the big expectation is that it could largely be farm focussed. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Anil Jain, Vice Chairman and MD of Jain Irrigation shared his expectations from the upcoming Budget for the sector.

A farm-focused Budget should mean three things. One is how much infrastructure the government is going to make in agriculture side. Second is what is the mechanism to put more money in the hands of the farmers and third is how do you tackle the risk mitigation in terms of whether it is climate change or sudden infestation of the disease like happened in cotton in Maharashtra, he said.

According to him, the recent insurance scheme for farmers has been much better than the earlier ones but it is still not effectively getting implemented.

10:41 am Market Check: Cautiousness has crept into D-Street as it awaits cues from the big bang event, the Union Budget, tomorrow. The Sensex and Nifty are trading almost flat with a negative bias. In fact, the Sensex has breached 36,000-mark and is trading below that.

However, the market breadth favours the advances. Among sectoral indices, pharmaceutical index is trading lower, along with IT and FMCG. Midcaps, too, are trading lower.

Bharat Electronics is down about 4 percent after the firm reported weak earnings for December quarter.

10: 30 am Management Outlook: Prataap Snacks has posted a stellar set led by operating leverage and a favourable base. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Amit Kumat, MD and CEO of Prataap Snacks spoke about the results and his outlook for the company.

The company grew by 16 percent in H1 and expect to achieve similar growth in H2, he said.

See good growth in Q4 and a better H2 than H1, he added.

We are looking at the margin between 8 percent and 10 percent going forward, said Kumat.

On new launch, he said we have just launched Yum Pie two months back. The initial response was very good and we are looking for a revenue growth of around Rs 40 crore from Yum Pie.

10:20 am Crypto crimes: South Korea has uncovered cryptocurrency crimes worth 637.5 billion won ($594.35 million), which includes illegal foreign exchange trading, a statement released by the country's customs service said on Wednesday.

The statement said domestic investors bought 1.7 billion won worth of cryptocurrencies, which they sent to overseas partner companies through virtual wallets. The transfers were then converted back into fiat currencies, which amount to unrecorded capital outflows.

The customs office added that it would continue to monitor the use of cryptocurrencies in cases like illegal currency trading or money laundering.

10:05 am Buzzing Stock: Share price of Steel Strips Wheels added 2.5 percent intraday Wednesday as company received an order for truck wheel from USA.

The company bagged another export order from US truck and trailer aftermarket for its truck steel wheels plant in Chennai.

The said order includes 4200 truck wheels to be shipped from company's Chennai plant in nest 2 months.

9:55 am MF news: Mahindra Mutual Fund has sought SEBI's approval to launch Mahindra Rural Bharat Yojana, as per the draft offer document on SEBI's website.

The open-ended equity scheme will deploy at least 80 percent of its corpus in equity and equity related instruments in companies having exposure towards rural India, while up to 20 percent can be deployed in companies other than having exposure to rural
India.

The scheme also has the provision to deploy up to 20% in debt and money market instruments collaterised borrowing and lending obligation, reverse repo. It can also invest up to 10 percent in real estate investment trusts and infrastructure investment trusts.

9:35 am Buzzing Stock: Shares of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) gained 3 percent intraday on Wednesday as investors cheered the company's stellar financial results for the December quarter.

The oil marketing company's third quarter earnings beat analyst expectations on Monday as standalone profit during the quarter more than doubled to Rs 7,883 crore, from Rs 3,696.3 crore in previous quarter.

The bottomline was far ahead of CNBC-TV18 poll of Rs 5,222 crore for the quarter.

9:25 am Nifty rejig: The National Stock Exchange's (NSE) benchmark index, Nifty, will be undergoing a fresh round of rebalancing, effective April 2018.

Based on a few parameters, the index undergoes changes, wherein some stocks get replaced by others.

Brokerage house IDBI Capital believes that there is a high probability of names such as Ambuja Cements, Aurobindo Pharmaceuticals as well as Bosch being included in the frontline index. Meanwhile, stocks such as Grasim, Bajaj Finserv and Titan are likely to be excluded from the list.

9:15 am Market Opens: The market began the session on a mildly lower note, with the Nifty holding 11,000-mark.

The Sensex is down about 25.75 points or 0.07% at 36,007.98, while the Nifty was down 9.90 points or 0.09% at 11039.80. The market breadth still continues to be negative as 413 shares advanced, against a decline of 639 shares, while 140 shares are unchanged.

Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, and Indian Oil gained the most on both the indices, while Hindustan Unilever, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Indiabulls Housing were the top losers.

Midcaps continued to be weak, with the Nifty midcap index trading around 0.40 percent lower.

The Indian rupee opened lower at 63.67 per dollar on Wednesday versus previous close 63.60.

Pramit Brahmbhatt of Veracity said, "On the back of negative cues from domestic equity market, the rupee will remain under pressure."

"We expect the USD-INR pair to trade in a range of 63.50-64," he added.

Asia stocks eased on Wednesday, pulling further back from record highs, as the recent rise in global bond yields weighed on equities.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added to the previous day's losses and dipped 0.1 percent, after reaching a record high on Monday.

Australian stocks shed 0.4 percent, South Korea's KOSPI lost 0.3 percent and Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.3 percent.

US stocks fell for a second straight day on Tuesday, with the Dow registering its biggest two-day drop since September 2016, pressured by healthcare stocks and rising bond yields.

The Dow also had its biggest daily percentage decline since May 2017 and the day's 1.37-percent fall was the second-biggest single-day drop since the election of Donald Trump, slated to give his first State of the Union speech later Tuesday.

US Treasury yields climbed to multi-year highs after the start of the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting, which could shed light on the central bank's economic and rate hike outlook.